The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it will create an independent drug safety board, in response to criticism in the wake of the Vioxx recall. The FDA already has an Office of Drug Safety , but lawmakers have said it lacks sufficient independence and resources. The proposed board would include representatives from the [...]

President Bush Tuesday recalled the US ambassador in Syria amid rising tensions over the recent assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in Beirut. Syria quickly condemned the murder in a press release issued by its US embassy in Washington, but the White House has publicly criticized Syria's ongoing military presence in Lebanon. US [...]

In Tuesday's international brief, Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Stuart Holliday introduced a draft resolution to the UN Security Council on Monday proposing the creation of a 10,000 member peacekeeping force to be deployed to the Sudan . The proposal leaves the geographical deployment of the forces up to the UN Department of Peacekeeping [...]

The Japanese cabinet has approved a draft bill that would allow the Japanese defense minister to order the shooting-down of incoming missles without obtaining cabinet consent. The bill now goes to the country's parliament for a vote later this week. The legislation is seen as a response to concerns about the nuclear capabilities of North [...]

The Department of Justice is expected to file a brief this week urging the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of 17 American pilots who were captured and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict. The POWs filed suit in federal court in 2002 under the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act that allowed citizens [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has upheld a contempt ruling against two reporters who refused to disclose their sources to investigators looking into the leak of an undercover CIA agent's name to the press. The court concluded that no federal shield law exists for reporters seeking to protect sources' identities. Time [...]

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has conceded that claims by Mahdouh Habib , a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, that he was tortured while held in Egypt may be true. Downer, who made the comments during a radio interview Monday, was responding to an interview Habib gave over the weekend, in which he alleged that he [...]

AP is reporting that defrocked Roman Catholic priest Paul Shanley has been sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for repeatedly molesting a boy in the 1980s. 11:35 AM ET – An AP report is now available.

Following up a Monday report in JURIST's Paper Chase, a spokesman for the Prince of Wales has disputed a report by BBC Panorama that Prince Charles' upcoming marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles is illegal. Four legal experts were consulted, and all concluded that members of the royal family were able to marry in civil ceremonies [...]

The UK government has informed at least two of the four British men recently released from Guantanamo Bay that they cannot obtain passports. An attorney for Martin Mubanga and Feroz Abbasi said that both had received a letter from the government informing them that they would not be issue passports due to evidence against them [...]